TWar

Hate it when the club is supportive with basically no downside...

I think Bednarek is better against a more physical or aerial threat. Wouldn't be surprised to see Bednarek/Salisu start against a Burnley/Leeds/Chelsea/West Ham style team with a big forward (will see this weekend I guess), I think they should have been the pair against Everton to be honest.

To be fair I think people saying this are taking the "experiment" aspect of the brief a bit. My team, for instance, has him as an inside forward but realistically Djenepo is more appropriate for such a role. It's just interesting to see how we would fit into another teams formation and to have a think how certain players of ours could be used differently in a system with different requirements.

One of these days I'll write a football to Duckhunter dictionary so you can get this stuff a bit better. Although to be honest I compared to an actual existing team and stated who would play each role player by player, not positive how to make it more simple than that.

To be fair they didn't quite say that. They said JWP was staying but if he did leave it would likely take a massive offer, for instance half what Grealish cost. They implied we would want that but didn't say we explicitly put a pricetag on him.

Yeah this is definitely my boldest call. I love his natural ability to both beat a man and press like crazy as well as pace/strength/composure, if we can add in shooting he seems a pretty ideal inside forward/inverted winger.

I always thought it would be fun to see if we could set up like Liverpool with Che in the Firmino support striker role who doesn't need to score a lot as he pulls people into play and holds the ball up. On top of this it requires a "Mane" and a "Salah", one guy who is an incredible dribbler and can make chances by beating a man and one guy who is lightning fast, shoots a lot and can finish. My Mane would be either Livramento, Stu, or Djenepo and my Salah would be Adam Armstrong. Three man midfield has one Fabinho (Destroyer type), one Thiago (playmaker who can break the lines and dribble) and one Henderson (All round box to box who can pop up anywhere). JWP is our Henderson imo in that he has a good engine and can put a tackle in as well as contribute in the final third (I actually think Liverpool will make a move for JWP as their Hendo replacement at some point). Romeu is obviously the best candidate for the Fabinho role, and the Thiago role will go to either Stu or Diallo, probably Stu for the time being but Diallo can develop into that role. Finally in defence we need two aggressive fullbacks who can cross and provide width. Perraud was excellent in this role in the french league and KWP was very good at getting high up the pitch last season so I'd pick these two (also because I'm converting Livramento to a Bale-style inverted winger and giving him the Mane role!). CBs we need someone quick strong to play the VvD line in the high line (Salisu) and someone who is decent in the air and last ditch to play the Matip role (Bednarek). We do miss the passing range of the liverpool pairing but that can't be helped. Forster in goal because he is a better shot stopper and claiming crosses is less important with Bednarek over Stephens as Bednarek is good in the air. Final team: When chasing the game sub out Adams for Broja and have a more traditional target man. Bring on Djenepo/Redmond for A. Armstrong/Livramento for a change of pace. See if Moi can play the advanced 8 role of S. Armstrong as his passing and shooting will be valuable without too much reliance on pace. Trial Lyanco in the Bednarek role to see if he can add passing from deep to the side without too much of a defensive drop off.

Surely the "goals scored and goals conceded" metric also falls victim to the natural variance you describe in the second sentence? If we dominate all game and lose 1-0 then that also doesn't show when evaluating goals scored and conceded? I think both metrics are valuable to be honest. The match day comparisons show the development of form and winning runs as well as the settling of new players/formations. The specific matches is probably the best way to mark our development available in that we are ostensibly playing mostly the same teams. It has variance as you describe, no doubt, but as the league rumbles on hopefully that will average out. Neither of these methods of measuring success are perfect, obviously, but it is impossible to 100% compare two different seasons, this is close enough to be a very useful tool imo. If you wanted a lower variance model you could use xG comparisons between last seasons game and this in order to remove the effect of a goalkeeper/striker having a worldy/howler when everyone else around them is doing fine. Using xG sends some around here into cold sweats though so maybe best avoided for now!

Peak Che, so hard to get off the ball, alongside his great passing and pace makes him an excellent second striker

Really interesting and valuable! The other 14 twitter does a baseline tracker which I always keep an eye out for but this is much more in depth and thorough! Thanks for the effort.

Yeah I think he may play a more advanced role against smaller teams but he has been sat super deep against the first three sides. If he plays like that for the remainder of the season about 5-7 goals will probably be his range. As I say, more likely just because he's been against tough opposition so is having to drop deep to get the ball and help overload the middle third.

We are creating pretty well this season considering the teams we've faced. D Dropping Adams would be a massive error given he is doing very well for xA (around the level of Grealish, Pogba, Richarlison). This mainly just shows we need to finish our chances (See Djenepo's formidable xG). Perraud and Livramento have both been very good for me so while I like KWP I'd keep him benched for now. Forster Livramento Stephens Salisu Perraud JWP Romeu S. Armstrong Moi Adams A. Armstrong Probably our strongest team right now, Moi shouldn't be dropped after scoring 4 in his last two for saints and then also scoring for his country.

Yeah Bertrand 15/16 was the best LB in the league and was an absolute world beater. Perraud is nowhere near that level yet but neither was Bertrand when he left us. Last season Bertrand (ahead of McCarthy and maybe alongside Bednarek) was amongst the weakest links in our ideal starting 11 imo. Perraud is a big step up from that is all I mean.

I really rate Perraud off the basis of what we have seen so far. Maybe fantastic is generous for him but he already looks a tonne better than Bertrand to me.

Makes sense, he is quality. So glad to have three fantastic fullbacks in contention. In previous seasons we barely had one.

Disagree on White, he was likely Brightons most complete CB. Good in the air, good defensively, great passer, good at running with the ball. Probably worse at pure defending than Dunk but he is also 6 years younger than Dunk. If Dunk were 23 he would cost about £50m too. White is being way underrated at the moment in my opinion. With regards to the last bit, White is significantly better than David Luis, Tomiyasu is significantly better than Cedric, and Odegaard is definitely an improvement to their side.

As for Arsenal and Villa. Arsenal didn't lose anyone important and brought in White, Tomiyasu, and Odegaard, three players I properly rate. Therefore their window is a step forward regardless, the size of which is determined by how highly you rate the aforementioned players. Villa on the other hand lost their best player by an absolute mile and didn't replace him adequately at all for me and didn't address major issues in their side like CM and CB. Ings is a good signing if he can stay fit, Buendia is fine, and Bailly is inconsistent. They've just lost one of the best attacking mids in europe and replaced him with that, definite step backwards for me. Ramsdale is a poor buy but it isn't enough to sink three very good ones imo. Brighton needed a striker and didn't get one, which is obviously a blow. They did improve elsewhere though like a new LWB and attacking mid, both of which I think they needed. Plus they held onto Bissouma. Maybe a bit high though admittedly. Agree with Newcastle and Wolves. West Ham I think had an OK window but I think they needed a striker too given Antonio's injury issues and they didn't get one. Zouma is a decent signing, if overpriced, and Vlasic seems ok but I think they really could have done spending their money in different places tbh. Palace signed five players I really highly rate in Olise, Anderson, Guehi, Edouard and Gallagher. The issue is their manager seems poor, Zaha is disinterested, Eze is injured for most of the season, and they have huge turn over. Therefore while the transfer business is good I still think they may be in a bit of trouble. Our window has been great for me. I think people will look back at Armstrong, Livramento, and Perraud incredibly positively, and for the price we have probably made the best bargains of the summer by a fair margin (of not "top teams" as teams like United and PSG can land incredible players just by paying big wages and being a big side). Armstrong for almost 1/3 the price of Buendia, Livramento for £5m, just great business imo.

I think the Ben White backlash is way overblown. He is a terrific CB, there is a reason Leeds were trying to get him for £35m before he'd even played a minute of prem football. Odegaard is quality too. Finally Tomiyasu is probably going to be a huge huge upgrade over Cedric and Chambers rotating. Ramsdale is a poor signing imo but they can't all be winners.

I think Salisu probably would have come through and replaced Vestergaard this season anyway, he is much more naturally talented imo. Would have been nice to see money spent on a partner for Salisu but for me Salisu + Bednarek/Stephens is stronger than Vestergaard + Bednarek which we had most of last season due to Salisu's injury

Wonder which teams everyone judges to have had a better summer than us. Discount the top 4 as it is somewhat comparing apples and oranges. I'd say Spurs Leicester Arsenal Palace Us Leeds Everton West Ham Brentford Wolves Newcastle Watford Burnley Brighton Norwich Villa This is in terms of strengthening and weakening relative to absolute strength. I think Villa and Norwich are the only teams who's squads have gotten actively weaker, because Grealish and Buendia were so important to each of them respectively. Newcastle, Watford, Burnley and Brighton have all made some signings but had massive gaps they didn't fill. Wolves, Brentford, and West Ham have all made modest signings but with a couple of gems each, Leeds, us, palace, and Arsenal have all signed a fair few players to strengthen our squads in general and will have a much stronger squad if only slightly stronger starting 11. Leicester and spurs both had excellent windows and have dramatically improved their starting 11's and depth alike

Was trying to be polite, what I ment was "not probably shit" I guess I could have said "someone with more proven quality" or "someone who has a better career track record"

I'm going to go 7.5/10 Positives: Armstrong is a great player and a great buy at his age, price, and homegrown status Livramento is a truly excellent signing, value-for-moneywise probably our best signing since Koeman left Perraud looks very capable, great at getting stuck in and getting involved Ralph has seen something in Elyounoussi and he has 4 goals in two starts (three admittedly against crap oppo) JWP signed a long term deal and committed his future which is great as he has been easily our best and most important player under Ralph We cleared a lot of deadweight including Lemina, Hoedt, Gunn, and unfortunately nearing the end Bertrand We got fantastic money for Vestergaard and Ings considering they were at the end of their contracts, I remember people (myself included) saying it was naïve to budget £30m from their combined sales, we got about £45m. Excellent selling. Whilst we didn't spend all we made we clearly have a plan going forward and that ~£20m or so we made this window can be invested in the future Negatives We should have replaced Vestergaard with someone higher profile to fix our struggling defence GK would have been nice to fix now rather than in 12 months Ings will be a miss, although I fully back Armstrong to hit his 10 non-pen goals he got last season we could have had both Our number 10 role is not that improved although the development of Elyounoussi, Djenepo, and Tella could change my mind on that. All in all, very satisfied with this window. Not perfect, of course, but holding some money back and spending the rest next summer could be shrewd as this is quite a substantially changed team now and assessing it's strengths and weaknesses over a longer period and then addressing them could be an astute move. Would have liked a keeper though.

Good luck to the lad. Definitely had pace and a bit of talent but injured far too often for a lad of his age and stories of unprofessionalism are never good. Would have been 7th choice for our striker role (Adams, Arma, Broja, Tella, Redmond, Walcott) so probably best for him he left, one year left on his contract £1.5-2m is a reasonable deal imo.

None expected at the moment but things could change was the case this morning. Not sure that's the usual "that's all folks" tweet. Not far off now surely though, if nothing has popped up by now then that is probably that.

It's newcastle. Confirmed in the follow up.